Wow, Wikipedia already has basic plot synopses of the first few episodes of Season 3.

Wikipedia wrote:Episode 1 and 2: The Crystal Empire Northern Equestria's Crystal Empire has once again made an appearance after being afflicted with a curse that made it vanish for 1,000 years, and Princess Celestia commissions Twilight Sparkle to keep the empire from disappearing again.

As with all the season openers and finales, this one sounds very fairy tale story oriented and, as such, I really have no clue what's gonna happen. At least both parts are gonna air back to back. It was slightly irritating when the two parts of The Return of Harmony were a week apart.

Wikipedia wrote:Episode 3: Too Many Pinkie Pies Overwhelmed with making the difficult decision to choose just one friend to spend time with, Pinkie Pie avoids making the choice by using a magic mirror pond to clone herself. Her plan goes awry when she cannot keep track of all the duplicates.

OMG YES! Pinkie Pie episode right out of the gate. I was seriously just wondering what would happen if there were many Pinkie Pies in the same place. In all likelihood some kind of silliness singularity will occur and suck everything in. I'm already getting flashbacks from Calvin and Hobbes. Scientific progress goes BOINK!

Wikipedia wrote:Episode 4: One Bad Apple The Cutie Mark Crusaders are crushed when Apple Bloom’s cousin, Babs Seed, rejects their invitation to become a fellow Crusader and instead becomes a bully determined to make their lives miserable.

Hmm, I'm not sure sure about the sound of this one. Didn't we already have a couple of episodes of Apple Bloom and company dealing with a bully? This time it's gonna be a family member who does the bullying so I guess that's different. Kinda. Oh well. Any chance to throw more Squeaky Belle in there is fine by me.

"When Trixie returns to Ponyville, she defeat Twilight and banishes her from town.

Yeah, given the bad grammar of that sentence I can't help but think this might just be someone trolling based on the episode name. Even if Trixie had anywhere near the skills to beat Twilight in a magic duel, why the hell would that result in Twi getting banished?

Ganthan wrote:"When Trixie returns to Ponyville, she defeat Twilight and banishes her from town.

Yeah, given the bad grammar of that sentence I can't help but think this might just be someone trolling based on the episode name. Even if Trixie had anywhere near the skills to beat Twilight in a magic duel, why the hell would that result in Twi getting banished?

I see where you're coming from, though this site's been accurate every time. Zap2it hasn't been wrong so far on episode synopses.

That was AWESOME for a season premier. All of the funny pony perks and one off jokes that memes get made out of, combined with a plot that was actually really good for a premier. Not to mention some foreshadowing about Twilight. Next level of studies!? Oh crap, what's Twi gonna become?

Rarity absolutely shines with all her enthusiasm at the beauty of the Crystal Empire. I also found it pretty amusing how she's quite willing to let Spike do all her heavy lifting for her.

It took me a little bit to figure out how Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were holding up their lances for the jousting match, then I realized they were holding them with their wings. I guess that's something only pegasi can do. Maybe unicorns as well but they could easily cheat.

Pinkie Pie's Fluttershy costume genuinely made me go "Whoa, holy S*%T!" Not to meantion Fluttershy's little freak out when she spotted it on the ground.

Cadance and Shining Armor reminded me of Scotty. "Captain, I don't know how much longer I can hold it together!" I bet Cadance was putting away the coffee like mad.

The only part I didn't really care for was the villain King Sombra. He was more two dimensional than Lord Voldemort, something I originally didn't think was possible. He was just there and evil because he could be. "Look at me, I take the form of a huge evil black cloud like from The Mummy. Phe@r m3! I mean, Nightmare Moon was a more interesting villain than him for pete's sake.

That was AWESOME for a season premier. All of the funny pony perks and one off jokes that memes get made out of, combined with a plot that was actually really good for a premier. Not to mention some foreshadowing about Twilight. Next level of studies!? Oh crap, what's Twi gonna become?

Rarity absolutely shines with all her enthusiasm at the beauty of the Crystal Empire. I also found it pretty amusing how she's quite willing to let Spike do all her heavy lifting for her.

It took me a little bit to figure out how Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were holding up their lances for the jousting match, then I realized they were holding them with their wings. I guess that's something only pegasi can do. Maybe unicorns as well but they could easily cheat.

Pinkie Pie's Fluttershy costume genuinely made me go "Whoa, holy S*%T!" Not to meantion Fluttershy's little freak out when she spotted it on the ground.

Cadance and Shining Armor reminded me of Scotty. "Captain, I don't know how much longer I can hold it together!" I bet Cadance was putting away the coffee like mad.

The only part I didn't really care for was the villain King Sombra. He was more two dimensional than Lord Voldemort, something I originally didn't think was possible. He was just there and evil because he could be. "Look at me, I take the form of a huge evil black cloud like from The Mummy. Phe@r m3! I mean, Nightmare Moon was a more interesting villain than him for pete's sake.

Took the words right outta my mouth. Loved every bit of it except for Sombra. He just felt like a bad OC. Still, frikken' awesome premier. SPIKE'S GOT A WINDOW NOW <3!

I also love the Wife Catapult combo with Shining Armor and Cadence. Frikken' awesome!

Doesn't have crazy Pinkie face, but it has Sweetie Belle's squeaky voice AND her using magic, Scootaloo flying, Twilight using an age reversing spell, an ARMY OF PINKIE PIES, Rainbow Dash racing one of the Wonderbolts, and ... next to Celestia... are those... regular horses?!

Doesn't have crazy Pinkie face, but it has Sweetie Belle's squeaky voice AND her using magic, Scootaloo flying, Twilight using an age reversing spell, an ARMY OF PINKIE PIES, Rainbow Dash racing one of the Wonderbolts, and ... next to Celestia... are those... regular horses?!

Wikipedia wrote:Spike at Your ServiceJust as Spike is about to be gobbled up by hungry Timberwolves, he is saved by Applejack; Spike feels the need to repay Applejack and is soon offering a little too much assistance on the farm in order to fulfill the "Noble Dragon Code."

Move over Rarispike fans, because it's time to make room for an all new wave of Applespike bronies.

Wikipedia wrote:Keep Calm and Flutter OnPrincess Celestia tasks the ponies with reforming Discord, a mischievous spirit of disharmony, but Fluttershy is the only one who is willing to give him a chance.

What? Oh Celestia, say WHAT?! Well, now we can add Fluttercord to the list.

Wikipedia wrote:Just for SidekicksSpike finds himself in over his head after convincing Twilight and her friends to let him pet-sit all of their critters in exchange for a few gems.

Ooookaaaay. I wasn't expecting THAT to happen. Besides reading brief episode synopses on Wikipedia I don't check any other information sites like Equestria Daily so this was all genuinely new and spoiler free for me. As far as I'm concerned, something is canon the moment it shows up in the show itself, no sooner. Everything else, even Word of God, is at best insider speculation.

Now suddenly the shortness of Season 3 makes perfect sense. They really WERE initially planning to end the series after 65 episodes which has typically been the the number of episodes of older animated shows. Yet now we're booked for a full 26 episode Season 4? What the hell are they gonna do with the series now?!